THE ABORIGINES OF PORTO RICO AND NEIGHBORING 

 ISLANDS 



By Jesse ^V alter Fewkes 



INTRODUCTION 



The author of the following monograph was commissioned In- tlie 

 Director of the Bureau of American Ethnologj' to visit the island of 

 Porto Rico in 11)02, and to continue the exploration in 1903 and 190-1. 

 The object of these visits was the collection of data and specimens 

 that would shed light on the jDrehistoric inhabitants of this West Indian 

 island which had lately come into the possession of the United States. 

 The first visit was a reconnoissance, preliminary to the more extended 

 stud}' that followed on the two visits referred to, in 1903 and 1901. 

 The work in 1902 was limited to Porto Rico, but the fact became 

 evident, as it progressed, that the problem of the character of the 

 aboriginal Antilleans could not be satisfactorily solved from material 

 collected on any one of the man}' West Indian islands. A special 

 examination of neighboring islands for comparative studies became 

 necessary. With this object in view the author was directed in 1903 

 to make a shoi't trip to Haiti and in 1901 to visit Cuba, Trinidad, and 

 the Lesser Antilles, which, extending from South America to Porto 

 Rico, formed a natural way of intercommunication or migration of 

 primitive races. The gathering of material in these excursions was 

 especially successful, and important prehistoric objects from several 

 of the islands visited were added to the existing collection in the 

 National Museum. A general summary of the results of the expedition 

 of 1903 has already been published in the Smithsonian Miscellaneous 

 Collections^'^ but this preliminary report was limited and onl}' partially 

 indicates the extent of the work performed or the amount and signiti- 

 cance of the material collected. An enumeration of the latter, embrac- 

 ing more than 1,200 specimens, comprises the important collection of 

 Archbishop Merifio, of Santo Domingo, and those of Seiiores Zeuo Gan- 

 dia, Neumann Gandia, Angelis, and Fernandez, of Porto Rico. These 



a Preliminary Report on an Aroheologieal Trip to the West Indies (^LV, no. 1-129, 1904). 

 2.5 ETH — 07 2 17 



